Circumcision: Cut or Uncut - The "I Love Penis" Edition

For all of you penis connoisseurs, what's your preference? Those with penises can also vote here.

This November, voters in San Francisco are expected to weigh in on a controversial topic: whether parents should be allowed to circumcise their baby boys.

The proposition, backed by members of an anti-circumcision group that calls its members "intactivists," has ignited heated debate.

It's hardly a new issue. Historians have found evidence of circumcision dating to ancient Egypt. Since then, the practice has gone in and out of public favor for myriad reasons, including hygiene, religion, cultural norms and beliefs about masculinity. Circumcised men are now in the minority worldwide, but they are the vast majority in the U.S.

Major medical associations have not yet taken a stance. The American Academy of Pediatrics states that circumcision has both risks and benefits and that parents should be given all the information available to make an informed decision. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working on recommendations regarding the practice, but they have yet to be released.

In the meantime, those in favor of circumcision say it promotes health and hygiene, while those opposed say it's an unnecessary medical procedure that amounts to mutilation.

Read on for two views.

Circumcision is not medically necessary, is unethical and can cause irreversible harm to men.

Georganne Chapin is the founding executive director of Intact America and the founder of Hudson Center for Health Equity & Quality, a nonprofit organization devoted to improving access to healthcare.

My argument against circumcision of children and infants is no more and no less than that it's a human rights issue. All people, male as well as female, are entitled to bodily integrity, and nobody — for any reason — has the right to cut off part of another person's body when that person is too young to understand and to consent.

Under bioethical principles, parental consent for medical treatment is permitted only if the treatment being considered will save the life or health of the child. Circumcision is not medically necessary, and so it violates those principles, as well as that child's entitlement to a complete body, his own personal freedom and autonomy.

There are medical risks involved with circumcision. The baby loses the protective function of the foreskin, which means that the head of the penis can build up extra layers of skin, or the baby could develop skin ridges, a bent penis or sexual dysfunction later in life. A study published in the British medical journal Lancet in 1997 demonstrated that babies who have been circumcised have a lower pain threshold for subsequent immunizations; they are extremely distressed, their cries are different. There is also a risk of infection and death, or of a botched procedure.

The foreskin serves a number of purposes sexually. It contains thousands of nerve endings, and if you're cutting off such an exquisitely sensitive body part you're going to lose sexual sensitivity. During intercourse, the foreskin also provides a natural gliding action and a lubricating function that's lost if the person is circumcised.

In this country, we've made female genital cutting a crime and grounds for refugee status, but we do the same thing to boys that other cultures do to girls. Those in favor of male circumcision say that one is mutilation and the other is helpful, but the act of cutting off part of a child's genitals is the same, whether it's a boy or a girl.

Some men even say that they have post-traumatic stress disorder that they associate with their circumcision as infants. I think we would have no trouble believing that from a woman, but we write off men's trauma and recollection as being whining and unmanly.

Circumcision is a so-called cure that's in search of a disease. The vast majority of men in the world are intact, and they are not suffering from illness or infection. There is no justification for cutting off a body part for a hypothetical future disease, especially ones like STDs that can be prevented in ways that don't involve mutilation. It's crazy that we don't think it's crazy.

Circumcision is safe, prevents certain health problems and should be available to those who want it.

Daniel Halperin is a lecturer in international health at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Circumcision provides a number of health benefits. It reduces the risk of HIV and penile cancer in men. It also reduces the risk of several other sexually transmitted infections in both men and women, including syphilis and herpes, and of cervical cancer in women. Urinary tract infections in infants are about 10 times less likely if the boy has been circumcised.

In Africa, there have been three randomized trials — two published in the journal Lancet in 2007 and one in the journal PLoS Medicine in 2005 — demonstrating that circumcision reduces heterosexual HIV infection in men by at least 60%. The foreskin provides a ready access to cells that are the entry point for HIV because the skin there is very soft and permeable, making it more vulnerable to infection. The area underneath the foreskin is also humid and provides a hospitable environment for infections, whereas they can't proliferate as well on the dry skin of the circumcised penis.

In countries where there is not good access to running water, another reason to circumcise is hygiene. And in a study of nurses in a U.S. geriatric unit, about 90% were strongly in favor of circumcision because it was difficult to bathe uncircumcised men in their 90s. When we look at a baby and we think about circumcision, we have to think not just about that baby but that he's going to turn into a man and, eventually, an old man.

The risks associated with circumcision are very low, with fewer than 1% of procedures resulting in complications.

In terms of sexual satisfaction, some research has found that men who are circumcised enjoy a wider range of sexual activities. It can also help prevent premature ejaculation in men.

As of 2009, there were 16 states in which Medicaid didn't cover circumcision. If parents in those states want their kids to get circumcised, they have to pay out of pocket, and it can cost hundreds of dollars.

If circumcision has health benefits, and the parents want to do it for medical or religious or other reasons, that should be allowed and the access should be there. And in those parts of the world that have very high rates of heterosexual HIV transmission, I would like to see circumcision be much more accessible.

I'm not interested in pushing circumcision but in making the service readily available to everybody who wants it.

Re: Circumcision: Cut or Uncut - The "I Love Penis" Edition

Thanks for the reply, Amy. I was hoping for a bit more female insight on the subject but I fear I titled this edition of the poll poorly. However, the more likely scenario is that us guys are far more interested in our own penises than you ladies are, per usual.

Re: Circumcision: Cut or Uncut - The "I Love Penis" Edition

I still kick myself for letting my ex talk me out of having my son circumsized, I worry all the time that he doesn't clean it well enough but I am too embarrassed to ever try to have the conversation with him. I also worry that he will not have as many girls willing to ummm orally please him... ICK

Re: Circumcision: Cut or Uncut - The "I Love Penis" Edition

Originally Posted by locachica73

I still kick myself for letting my ex talk me out of having my son circumsized, I worry all the time that he doesn't clean it well enough but I am too embarrassed to ever try to have the conversation with him. I also worry that he will not have as many girls willing to ummm orally please him... ICK

Re: Circumcision: Cut or Uncut - The "I Love Penis" Edition

Originally Posted by locachica73

I still kick myself for letting my ex talk me out of having my son circumsized, I worry all the time that he doesn't clean it well enough but I am too embarrassed to ever try to have the conversation with him. I also worry that he will not have as many girls willing to ummm orally please him... ICK

Nothing wrong with boyz 'n' the hood.

Originally Posted by JustSteve

well, for all intensive porpoises it is, will sell out within seconds tomorrow.

Re: Circumcision: Cut or Uncut - The "I Love Penis" Edition

My kids father was the only uncut one I have seen (besides my son when I use to change his diapers). It was just weird giving him a blow job, like a mouth full of extra skin. So I have just always prefered circumsized.

Re: Circumcision: Cut or Uncut - The "I Love Penis" Edition

I think they pretty much circumsized everyone unless you specifically requested against it. Even in 94 when I had my son I had to tell the doctor not to do it at my ex's request.

I knew a guy who wasn't circumsized as a kid and decided to go in and have it done as an adult because he had so much trouble with it. He said it was the most painful think imaginable. So I guess they just automatically did it to avoid that.

Funny story: My mother kept the dried up foreskin of my brothers to eventually give to his future wife as a wedding gift. My mother is twisted.

Re: Circumcision: Cut or Uncut - The "I Love Penis" Edition

I'm very proud of you for not circumsizing him. If he decides that he wants it circumsized, its certainly not too late for him to make that decision. My parent's didn't clip mine, and I'm glad. Yeah you have to clean it, but christ - any decent adult trying to get laid should be keeping things clean down there. It's not like its all gooey or something. When erect you can't even really tell the difference - i've had girls assume I was cut even after several encounters.

You don't see doctors removing tonsils and appendices before babies leave the hospital, just because they might cause problems later. What is the justification for removing foreskin? To me it seems just as awful as any other form of genital mutilation, just socially acceptable in western society. The real root of this tradition is curbing evil masturbation - my understanding is that I have a much easier time, lube-free.

Re: Circumcision: Cut or Uncut - The "I Love Penis" Edition

Originally Posted by locachica73

My kids father was the only uncut one I have seen (besides my son when I use to change his diapers). It was just weird giving him a blow job, like a mouth full of extra skin. So I have just always prefered circumsized.

You were doing it wrong. I guess it's true that men give the best blow jobs.

Originally Posted by SepaGroove

You shouldn't feel uncool for not going to EDC, you should feel uncool because you are uncool.

Re: Circumcision: Cut or Uncut - The "I Love Penis" Edition

Originally Posted by ambient sounds

so ladies, is their a noticeable difference between a un/circumcised one during sex.

Not really, as far as I could tell. Although my ex was convinced that uncut men had more growth potential, I told him that was complete bullshit but he was pretty well endowed for a redheaded irish boy, so who knows.

Re: Circumcision: Cut or Uncut - The "I Love Penis" Edition

If we're talking aesthetics, cut always wins, hands down. But once it's 12:45, you can barely tell the difference anyway.

Originally Posted by locachica73

My kids father was the only uncut one I have seen (besides my son when I use to change his diapers). It was just weird giving him a blow job, like a mouth full of extra skin. So I have just always prefered circumsized.

Speaking of the confessions thread...I totally misread this comment by locachica. The first time I read it my brain totally ommitted the word "kids" and I got a little freaked out.

Re: Circumcision: Cut or Uncut - The "I Love Penis" Edition

Re: Circumcision: Cut or Uncut - The "I Love Penis" Edition

Originally Posted by locachica73

Not really, as far as I could tell. Although my ex was convinced that uncut men had more growth potential, I told him that was complete bullshit but he was pretty well endowed for a redheaded irish boy, so who knows.